Growing Up

Angelus Article
http://www.stmvirgin.org/article104554.htm

My son, Liam, is growing up fast; we celebrated his first birthday on Tuesday, November 13, 2007. We had Cookie-Monster Cake because he likes Sesame Street. When I was a boy I remember watching Cookie Monster eat cookies on Sesame Street. I remember counting numbers with the Count. I remember Ernie singing about the joys of bathing. Overall, Sesame Street hasn’t changed all that much. The only big difference is Elmo. When I was a boy Elmo was a friendly red monster who hung out with Grover (a friendly blue monster) and said very little. Now he has his own fifteen-minute segment each morning that educates kids on everything from running and jumping to digital cameras.

My wife, Nicole, and I are trying to do what we can to make sure Liam gets exposed to as many good things as possible (what parent doesn’t try to do that?). One thing that most parents can agree on is sound education. I think Sesame Street is a great tool for children of a certain age, but at some point we all grow up and go to school, leaving Elmo and friends behind for teachers and coaches and other mentors, the memory of whom – just like Cookie Monster, the Count and Ernie – will bring smiles to our faces years later. They were all a part of shaping us and educating us.

I have always been convinced that many people learn about Christianity through the liturgy. If you had asked me as a boy what Easter meant I probably would have sung a verse from a hymn or the Easter Acclamation: Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! The prayers that are said each day or each season have certainly shaped my understanding of the Faith. As I grow older, I get more and more from the sermon: there is no substitute for hearing how the Good News of Christ has changed someone else. Books read, classes taken in seminary and classes that I have taught have educated me further still. Since the dawn of time, I think, parents have been saying the same thing to their children: “You have a lot to learn.” As a father and a son, I believe that’s true for all of us. There is a great deal that we can all learn about many things, not the least of which is the faith in Jesus Christ that we share with each other and all the saints throughout history.

It is fun to imagine the future. Someday Liam will probably be assigned the task of drawing a picture of Jesus or playing the role of shepherd in a nativity scene just like his dad did. He will someday learn the words of the Lord’s Prayer and get confused between the various Creeds like his dad still does. He will learn about the Church just by being part of it on Sunday mornings. I hope that someday he’ll find himself in a Bible Study or a class on the Sacraments as part of some adult Christian Education program. We outgrow certain forms of education, but does that mean we stop learning? I don’t think so.

Since I arrived at Saint Mary’s as the Curate for Liturgy and Education I have tried different approaches to offering Christian Education so that it can become part of the regular life of the parish. I think the current approach seems to be working. Christian Education on Sundays, either before or after Solemn Mass, has proven to be popular, so popular that we have grown out of the space we have been using for the last three years – there wasn’t enough room to close the door of Saint Benedict’s last week. Beginning this Sunday, November 18, all Christian Education classes will take place in the newly renovated Mission House on the Second Floor.

If you haven’t been to a class yet this fall, it's not too late! Robert McCormick is offering a class on Liturgical Music following Solemn Mass this Sunday. On the four Sundays of Advent, at 10:00 AM, the Right Reverend Richard F. Grein will lead a series exploring the parables told by Jesus in the Gospels. Also, the Spring 2008 schedule is nearly complete, and I am very excited about the future of Christian Education at Saint Mary’s. The classes are growing because people love to learn.

Into the fog....

Sermon: Proper 27, Year C, 2007.

The first details of my life that I really remember are from 1981. I remember turning 5 years old. We were on vacation on Monhegan Island in Maine during the summer of 1981, there was cake, there were friends and family, they were balloons, and I got a fishing pole – it was fantastic. That same summer my mother’s older brother, my Uncle Paul, his wife Terry, and my three cousins came up to visit the Island. When they took the boat back to the mainland, it was a really foggy day. I remember waving goodbye as the boat disappeared into the fog. That was the last time we ever saw Paul. He died suddenly of a heart aneurism a few weeks later.

A few years later my Aunt Terry remarried. Uncle Dave has been my uncle, a great husband, and a great father to my cousins for nearly 25 years. In heaven who will be Aunt Terry’s husband? My Uncle Paul or my Uncle Dave? Who will be father to my cousins? Does it matter? It would to the Sadducees. But they don’t believe in the resurrection, so it obviously doesn’t matter much to them.

All week departed friends and family of members of the parish have been remembered by name at Mass. Each day I have read name after name after name of people who have died. It’s a hard week for the clergy here, I think, because we have to read the names. I imagine its just as hard for those who come to mass each day and listen. My belief in the resurrection doesn’t begin to worry about whether or not my cousins have to choose between their father and their step-father. I believe they will be thrilled to introduce their father Dave to their father Paul.

I want you to think of someone who has died that you loved. Maybe there are many people. Think of them for a moment.

[PAUSE]

That feeling of loss is exactly what Peter, James, John, Mary, and all the other disciples felt when Jesus was dead. They missed him, they longed to see his face, but they knew that he was dead and gone.

Now, imagine the joy the apostles felt when they first saw Jesus standing, resurrected, in their midst. Imagine the joy that Mary felt when she realized that she wasn’t speaking to the gardener, but to Jesus. Do you think they cared who would get to sit at his right hand or his left hand in the kingdom? Do you think they cared about anything other than the fact that all that they longed for was theirs? They cared only that he was there. Their reaction wasn’t to ask questions about details, their reaction to rejoice and because of that joy, they spread the fact of his resurrection to others.

I can’t give you details about what life after the resurrection is like. I can tell you one thing though. My uncle didn’t disappear into the fog for ever, he lives in Christ and my cousins and my aunt and my uncle Dave and my mother and I and all of our family and all of his friends will be with him again. All of those names, names after name after name, will be with us again. What we have longed for in Christ will be made present in Christ. Now they see God face to face, and so will we.

Like the first apostles, I believe that we are all called to spread the joy of the resurrection to others. Joy is something that everyone can wants to have and something that everyone remembers. My first memory isn’t my uncle’s death. My first memory was my fifth birthday. My family was there. My friends were there. And I got a fishing pole.

I can tell you about the joy of my getting a fishing pole but it doesn’t compare the joy of the resurrection. Listen to what Saint John says: I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."

I pray that we can all speak to others about the joy that we have had, the joy that is coming into our lives, and about the joy that we know is to come.